"I envision a future, where all of us will have access to teaching assistants like Jill Watson, anytime, anywhere, for any task. I envision a future, in which education will be accessible to all. But teaching and learning will also be personal and fun." Ashok Goel

In a near future state, we can get to a 1:1 student and teacher ratio. Something that is powered by a combination of the following:

Human and in-person instructors.

Pooling the teacher resources and virtualizing these resources. Providing on-demand access to teachers.

And if we train certain technologies and then teach them to teach. Then we can get to teachers that are AI or AI that are teachers. I think, this reality (in particular) still 4 to 7 years away. Depending on, when we start tackling this problem.

I think, 1:1 student and teacher ratio is 7 to 10 years out.

In the interim, MOOCs can help. MOOCs have come a long way since the early days of OpenCourseware (MIT). Today you get quality content from virtually all the leading platforms. From Udacity to Coursera, Khan Academy to Udemy.

Technology in the classroom will always have my vote. I have always been a big believer in making use of employing just the right amount of tech in the classrooms. In the past, some of these thoughts have taken the shape and form of actual blog-posts. link, link, link and link.

In the words of Thomas Friedman 'It should not be about time spent (in the classroom) but more about stuff learned". Listening to a teacher for hours on end, droning on about any given topic is a very inefficient mechanism for imparting education. Something that I have blogged about.

Now there has been a lot of good innovation, specifically when it comes to the medium. The medium relating to how education is imparted, focusing on the emergence of MOOCs. But when it comes to delivering the 'concepts', the synthesis of what information is supposed to represent. That problem has been addressed in bits and pieces, as we can only innovative so much within a medium that is confined to text/audio/video.

Here, virtual reality is a game changing product. It will give students of all types the ability to pickup and absorb the knowledge in a much richer format. For example: reading something vs actually performing the task has a completely different impact on your cognitive cycles. The chances that you will forget something that you read are pretty high. In retrospect, your brain forms neural pathways and registers how you go about acquiring any new skills. This is precisely the reason why it is next to impossible to forget a skill, like riding a bike.

Also, there are so many other benefits when it comes to leveraging VR for education. No limitations when it comes to physical space, unlimited chances for trial and error without any harmful effects in the physical world, the ability for collaborating with others from any given part of the world e.t.c. Also, since all the interactions are occurring in the digital world, these interactions and the sum total of the outcomes can be measured and aggregated in greater details. This will be particularly beneficial, when it comes to the issue of jobs, skills training and eventually in getting rid of the job/skills mismatch.

Today I decided to Google the term 'Oculus for education' and when you click on the video section on Google, then this is one of the first videos that comes up (below).

This makes me really happy. This can transform education as we know it, entire societies and the world. But why limit it to just the education industry. Virtual reality can transform the world.

What a great invention! Great work by Palmer Luckey (in particular) and the folks at Oculus Rift.

MOOC‘s deliver the bulk of the theory and that shift is already occuring.

With this disruption, classroom usage/time automatically becomes more precious. And instead of listening to a prof for hours on end. This time should be leveraged for:

Collaboration

Experimentation

Interactivity*

Examinations that occur on a greater frequency.

As illustrated in the image above. We are looking at:

Huge open spaces

The layout has been mapped in ‘concentric circles’

The floor can move, so that:

Bigger circles can form smaller circles. Beneficial for effective team-work, collaboration and for enabling in-person discussion

The floor can also move up or down. So that the classroom can become an arena. The presenter can then take their position at the very center of the hall.

There are three screens on each desktop. The non-illuminated screen is an ordinary screen. Not unlike the screens we use today.

The illuminated screens are 3d desktop interfaces. Students can leverage these ashackerspace/makerspace. On these screens the students can design, create and experiment in the virtual world. Without the hassle of actually wearing all the equipment required for virtual and/or 3d rendering. The institution would also end-up saving tons of physical space. I was at Ryerson University the other day and we toured 7 or 8 huge labs for Industrial Engineering alone. Also, imagine what this is going to do for skills development and for encouraging creativity. I can almost envision saying goodbye to a shortage of STEM graduates.

Each workstation, has a built-in application. The teacher has not been completely eliminated. However, the teacher resources have been pooled together. And by virtualizing the student/teacher interaction, you now have a larger pool that you can draw assistance from.

Usecase: Student is stuck on a problem and needs assistance. Student invokes a menu on their screen and ‘calls’ a teacher for assistance. Call is received on the receiving end (by a teacher) depending on availability (State wide). If no teacher is available, then the call is alloted a wait time. The teacher then appears directly on this individuals screen (video conference like facetime). Student’s desktop/3d desktop interfaces are automatically shared with the teacher. The call ensues. The teacher can simply answer the question. Teacher can also take control of the entire workstation, so that they can demonstrate how an experiment is conducted.

With a core emphasis on learning, exams can now be held every other day.(Can’t indent this bullet for some reason)

What’s missing from the image:

Overhead projectors

Private study rooms on the side

I envisioned this design for two simple reasons:

I don’t believe that listening to a professor for 4 to 8 hours a day (in-person) is a very good way of imparting education. It is absolutely fundamental that our educational institutions move from an era of ‘time served to a era of stuff learned‘.

The emphasis should be on teaching skills. Skills that students can leverage in the real world. The most beneficial (in terms of knowledge absorbed) and cost effective solution is to get the students to learn new skills in controlled virtual environments. A place where students can make stuff, break stuff, experiment and fail. All without any consequences.

Note: Original artwork. If you are going to share, then please link back to the source atwww.adeelkhan.ca. Thanks.

Seems like the audience were more receptive to a blog-post/idea such as the one highlighted above.

Teachers:I've had some time to think about the pivotal role that teachers play. I think, if anything the world needs more teachers. That being said, I think that the role that a teacher would play. That role needs to get diversified and take different forms. I think that the fundamental role of a teacher should be to:a) Encourage learningb) Answer questions when a student gets stuck.

This can be accomplished by virtue of curating content that is readily available (online) and in different formats. So the students then have the ability to absorb the content as they deem fit.